Charming Ever After

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Waking up the next morning, I have barely been to sleep. Getting up and heading to the shower, I get ready for the day. Waking into the kitchen, I get my travel mug down and pour my coffee. "Morning." Kari says. "Morning." I say. Jax walks in and say "Morning ladies." Kari says "Morning, Jax." I just say "Morning." I put the lid on my mug and head out the door without another word. I walk out to the stables to check on Rayne and drink my coffee. "You need to eat something." Jax says from behind me. "I'm fine. You ready to work?" I asked. "Whatever you need." he says. "I'll handle the chickens. Can you feed the horses for me? While you're doing that I'll canvas the fence and then we can go get what we need to mend the weak spots." I say. "Sure." he says simply. I go to walk by him and he grabs my arm, stopping me. "You okay?" he asked. "Peachy keen." I tell him as I pull out of his grasp and head to feed the chickens.

Once I finish pulling the eggs and get them in cartons, Kari comes out. "Can you deliver these for me? I need to canvas the fence." I ask her. "Sure." she says as she helps me load them in the front of my truck. She heads out and I get in on the fourwheeler to start heading to the fenceline. I ride around and see several weak spots, making notes of each spot and what we need. Pulling back up to the house, I see Jax standing there with a bottled water waiting on me. "You ready to go?" I asked. "Yeah." he says before getting in the driver's side. I don't argue. I hand him the keys and we head to town.

Getting what we need, I show him the first spot that needs to be done and we get to work. The only words spoken are what's needed to get the job done. Once the fence is done, we head back to the house and shower. I grab a water and head out to the gazebo that dad built for mom years ago and sit. Jax comes out and says "Dinner's done." I don't look at him but say "I'm good. I'll be inside in a bit." I tell him. He sits down beside me. "You need to eat. I know for a fact you haven't eaten today." he says. "I'm fine Jax. I need to go check on Rayne." I say before getting up and walking off.

Heading off to the stables, I go over to Rayne and decide to start shoveling out the stables. Pulling each horse out one by one, I start shoveling everything out and laying new hay. Three stalls in, Jax comes in. "Echo, it's midnight. What are you still doing out here?" he asked. "Getting these stalls cleaned. You should head to bed. Gotta get up in a few hours." I say without looking at him and without stopping what I'm doing. He walks over and takes the shovel from me. "What are you doing?" I asked. "You need to sleep." he says. "I'm fine." I say. "You're not fine. Kari sees it and I see it. You haven't eaten since yesterday morning and now you're up working at midnight which tells me you aren't sleeping. You're gonna kill yourself doing this shit." he says. "What do you know?" I asked, getting pissed. "I know more than you think. I know what Carter told you when he left you." he says. I look at him shocked. "How do you know about that?" I asked. "Kari told me." he says. "It wasn't her place to say shit." I seethe. "She told me because I told her about running into him and his wife today." he tells me. I feel the tears trying to fall and try to fight them off but it doesn't work. The minute they start to fall, Jax pulls me to him and wraps his arms around me. "It's okay." he says. "No it's not. It will never be okay." I tell him. He pulls back to look at me and asks "Why not? Because some asshat told you that you weren't worth it? That's bull shit." he says. I pull away from him. "It doesn't matter. It's done." I say before trying to walk back over to get more work done.

Before I can pick the shovel back up, I feel him turn me around and pick me up. Putting me over his shoulder, he carries me inside and into the kitchen. Sitting me down, he sits the plate that Kari put in the microwave in front of me with a water and says "Eat. I'm not letting you up until you eat." I glare at him and say "Who do you think you are?" He smirks at me and says "The person that's not going to let you kill yourself over some stupid fuck that didn't know a good woman when he had her." I look at him shocked. Shaking my head, I pick at my food. Once I've eaten enough to satisfy Jax, he takes the plate and puts it in the sink. Taking my hand he leads me to my room and sits me down on the bed. Taking off my shoes, I lay down and he lays with me. "What are you doing?" I asked still shocked at how he's being with me. "Making sure you sleep." he says as he takes his shoes off and lays on the bed next to me. I lay under the covers and he lays on top of them. "Good night Echo." he says. "Night." is all I say.

Waking up the next morning, after only three hours sleep, Kari knocks on the door, waking us. "Echo, breakfast is almost done." she says before walking away from the door. I open my eyes and feel warm breath on the back of my neck and an arm around my waist. Turning onto my back, I see his eyes open and he smiles softly. "Morning." he says softly. "Morning." I say back. "How'd you sleep?" he asked. "Better than I have in a while. Thank you." I say. "Anytime." he says. "Kari said breakfast is almost done. Guess we should get ready for our day. Gonna be a long one." I say. "Yeah. I'll be out there in a minute. Gotta head to my room to change." he says, getting up off the bed. I can't help but admire how his sweatpants hang low and the muscles in his back move when he does. I shake my head. He works for me. I can't be looking at him like he's a piece of meat.

Getting up and getting dressed, I head to the kitchen. "How are you this morning?" Kari asks me, concerned. "I'll be okay." I say. Before she can say anything else, Jax walks in and Kari hands him his plate. He grabs one for me and hands it to me and says "Sit down and eat." I look at him and he says a sarcastic "Please." I roll my eyes and grab the plate before sitting down and eating. Once I was done, I put the plate in the sink and ask Jax "After we get the stalls and the chickens done, you wanna go for a ride?" He smirks and says "Sure. I've never been on a horse before so you'll have to show me how." I nod and say "Okay." I head out onto the porch to wait for him and I hear Kari ask "She never invites anyone along when she rides. What happened last night?" I hear Jax say "She was out at midnight in the stables. I carried her inside and got her to eat and laid down with her to get her to sleep." "Wow. Thanks Jax for looking out for her. I don't want her going back down that rabbit hole." she says. "I got her." he says before meeting me out on the porch.

We get everything done and head to get the horses ready to ride. I show him how to get Thunder saddled and ready to go and I get Rayne ready. "Rayne and Thunder?" he asked. "When I was little, I liked storms so when we got these two, those were the names I came up with." I say and he smiles. We head out on my favorite trail and are taking it slow, more for his sake than mine. "Tell me a little more about yourself, Teller. Surely you didn't leave California to come all the way out here for no reason." I say. "I moved out here a little while after my wife died. It just wasn't where I needed to be anymore." he says. "You got kids?" I asked. "Two boys. A friend has them until I can find a place and get settled." he says. "You thinking about settling here?" I asked without looking at him. "Thinking about it. Work's good. People are good. I think my boys would love the animals." he says. "How old are they?" I asked. "Abel is six and Thomas is three. Did you ever want kids?" he asked. "Yeah. I wanted a couple of kids. But found out years ago that wasn't in the cards for me." I say sadly. "You know you deserve better than that shit. You can't let him get under your skin." he says. "I know. It's just hard, you know? It was one thing when he left, telling me it was because I couldn't have kids but to see them together, her pregnant, getting what I dreamed of? I couldn't handle it." I say. "I know. But, you're a good woman. You deserve someone that sees that." he says. "Yeah. Maybe." I say.

We ride a little longer before we get to the streams. Dismounting our horses, we head over to the rocks. Climbing up onto one of the rocks, he follows me up. "This is where I go to think. When shit gets to me too much. My dad used to bring me here all the time. Taught me how to fish right over there." I tell him, pointing to a spot a little bit over from us. "Are your boys still in California?" I asked. "Yeah. My friend told me as soon as I was on my feet, he'd fly out with them." he tells me and I nod my head. "I like having you around. You're a big help here." I tell him. "Glad to hear." he says. "Tell me about your dad." he says. "He was the best. Mom died when Kari and I were little so it was always just us and Dad. When he died of cancer, we thought about selling the farm but just couldn't do it. This was his life. After mom died, he bought the farm so that we could have something when we grew up. I honestly couldn't imagine living anywhere else." I say. I see him looking at me and shy away. "We better head back." I say. He gets off the rock first and helps me off before we mount the horses and head back to the house.